Acer Crystal Eye Webcam and MSN Messenger

Whenever I try to connect the Acer crystal eye webcam with my msn messenger the following message appears: "Your conversation cannot begin because your camera is currently in use or not plugged in. Make sure your camera is available and try again."
However when I connect the webcam using my desktop icon it works!!!

The problem is that the Crystal Eye APPLICATION, pre-installed with the laptop, takes exclusive control of the camera.

Remember there is a difference between the APPLICATION and the DRIVERS. You can download both (2 versions of each) from the Acer website.

To fix the problem:

Download and extract the drivers for the camera from Acer. NOTE: Do NOT download anything with "AP" in the name. That's the application, and you don't want that. I recommend the "Chiconey" drivers listed.

Uninstall anything in "add/remove programs" from the control panel that says "Crystal Eye". Also go into the Device Manager and uninstall the hardware for Crystal Eye. REBOOT .

When you get back to Windows after the reboot, install the drivers. Once again... MAKE SURE you are not installing anything with "AP" in the name.

After you do this, you should be able to select the camera in your favorite IM program.The fix:

The problem is that the Crystal Eye APPLICATION, pre-installed with the laptop, takes exclusive control of the camera.

Remember there is a difference between the APPLICATION and the DRIVERS. You can download both (2 versions of each) from the Acer website.

To fix the problem:

Download and extract the drivers for the camera from Acer. NOTE: Do NOT download anything with "AP" in the name. That's the application, and you don't want that. I recommend the "Chiconey" drivers listed.

Uninstall anything in "add/remove programs" from the control panel that says "Crystal Eye". Also go into the Device Manager and uninstall the hardware for Crystal Eye. REBOOT .

When you get back to Windows after the reboot, install the drivers. Once again... MAKE SURE you are not installing anything with "AP" in the name.

After you do this, you should be able to select the camera in your favorite IM program.

we couldn't start your camera device.please check that your camera is not currently in use by another program,and then try againwe couldn't start your camera device.please check that your camera is not currently in use by another program,and then try again

yeh i have the new msn beta 9 or 9.5 and wheneva i try and go on webcam it says:

We couldn't start your camera device. Please check that your camera is not currently in use by another program, and then try again.

This happens even when the only thing im using is msn!!! this is annoying the hell outa me!!! anyone know how to sort this problem out.yeh i have the new msn beta 9 or 9.5 and wheneva i try and go on webcam it says:

We couldn't start your camera device. Please check that your camera is not currently in use by another program, and then try again.

This happens even when the only thing im using is msn!!! this is annoying the hell outa me!!! anyone know how to sort this problem out.

i have just installed the latest version of windows live mess.... and all of a sudden my cam wont work it just brings up the message " We couldn't start your camera device. Please check that your camera is not currently in use by another program, and then try again"

It worked fine yesterday

Help lol

i have just installed the latest version of windows live mess.... and all of a sudden my cam wont work it just brings up the message "
We couldn't start your camera device. Please check that your camera is not currently in use by another program, and then try again"

5 Answers

Hi,the acer crystal eye has issues with mcafee site adviser either delete it as i did or configure it.search mcafeemessenger click on microsoft live messenger 2009 (v140) conference link to the appr opiate page hope this is helpful.

Whenever I try to connect the Acer crystal eye webcam with my msn messenger the following message appears: "Your conversation cannot begin because your camera is currently in use or not plugged in. Make sure your camera is available and try again." and i can't connect to my webcam even if i'm not on msn.

Before you start messenger... use ctrl+alt+delete to pull up the task manager window. Go to the processes tab and check to see if the application is running. If it is...end it....then try your messenger.

Anonymous

Re: Acer Crystal Eye Webcam and MSN Messenger

I've just bought a 7720 and had the same prob. Because i had a limited software support i phoned them and they told me to remove the sample pictures from the pictures folder and any other photo's in there and try it. And it worked, i don't know what it did but i can now use my webcam with MSN

Tell us some more! Your answer needs to include more details to help people.You can't post answers that contain an email address.Please enter a valid email address.The email address entered is already associated to an account.Login to postPlease use English characters only.

Probebly U have installed MSN on computer make sure before U turn on webcam U completely stop msn. Remove MSN from taskbar too. Even though if U face a same problem than remove webcam software and install it agein and make sure when U install a software nothing else is running in parallel.

Hi,Make sure you are not running the Desktop Icon program first. The camera can only be used by one program at a time.Now login to Messenger, and clickTools > Audio and Video Setup, and click Next past the audio settings, and choose USB Video Device from the list. It should work after a couple of seconds. If that doesn't work, try the other device drivers from the list, waiting a couple of seconds each time, until you can see some output in the window. Then apply and you're ready to go.It's the same deal with Skype, except it's in Tools > Options > Audio Settings.

I know a lot of people are having problems with the acer cam
if you updated msn try going back to your old version
or if you have'nt updated it you can try that.
The only other thing is to uninstall cam and reinstall
I've had to that so many times on my acer crystal eye cam

I'm not sure if your problem is fixed yet or not, but I had this same problem when I updated to windows live 2009. But whenever I deleted it and got an older version of live it works just fine. So, I think it's msn and not the webcam..but i'm not positive about that. Mine just seemed to work after I got an older version.